AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (HDGE) — a fund that shorts stocks — is up nearly 18% this year. Brad Lamensdorf, co-manager, is concerned about the exposure to bad loans (especially energy company debt) held by big banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. Source: CNN Money
Turkey saw 72,937 house sales in January with a 24.8-percent annual fall, the country’s statistical office announced on Feb. 18. The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said 31,048 newly-built houses were sold while the rest were second-hand sales last month. Source Daily News
- China’s car sales in January fell 15.8 percent from last year, China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
- This marks the seventh straight month of declining sales in the world’s largest auto market.
- Beijing is now trying to persuade consumers to loosen their purse strings and has pledged to provide subsidies to boost rural sales of some vehicles and purchases of new energy vehicles.
- China’s car sales in January fell 15.8 percent from last year, China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
- This marks the seventh straight month of declining sales in the world’s largest auto market.
- Beijing is now trying to persuade consumers to loosen their purse strings and has pledged to provide subsidies to boost rural sales of some vehicles and purchases of new energy vehicles.
The biggest U.S. bank said it developed a prototype digital coin that it plans to use to speed up payments between corporate customers. The token, dubbed JPM Coin, is based on blockchain technology, a decentralized public ledger of transactions that offers more speed because it doesn’t rely on a central record keeper. Source: Bloomberg
